Nurse call and utility unit



Dec. 3, 1963 B. w. COTTON ETAL NURSE CALL AND UTILITY UNIT Filed June 1.1961 /N VENTORS BY/ 5MM/f5 BERYL W. COTTON TIMOTHY L. THOMAS FIG. 4.

TTORNEY United States Patent O 3,112,968 NURSE GALL AND UTILITY UNETBeryl W. Cotton, 1941 Yosemite, and Timothy L. Thomas, 3024 Bryan, bothof Fort Worth, Tex. Filed .lune 1, 1961, Ser. No. 114,095 1 iaim. (Cl.31h- 248) This invention relates to electrical communication systemsused in hospitals and refers more particularly to the equipment provided4for the patient to use for calling the nurse, watching television,listening to radio, piped music or talking on an intercom or telephone.

rI`he present equipment provided for these services involves thenecessity of having various wires or pull chains draped over the head ofthe bed or lying on the pillow, or alongside the patient. Besides theinconvenience of becoming entangled in the wires or rolling over on suchan uncomfortable yobject as a television control, the push button orchain for calling the nurse may accidentally fall away from the bed outof reach of the patient. Furthermore, whenever the bed is moved orremade, all these wires and devices have to be rearranged.

It is the purpose of this invention to provide a single, adjustablewall-suspended cabinet to contain all the necessary control buttons,outlets and lights, including a speaker and a telephone set, which arerequired by cornrnunication services in a hospital room; a cabinet whichcan be folded compactly against the wall when not in use but which canbe extended a considerable distance and in a wide range of positionsover or alongside the bed, and a cabinet which the patient can reachyfrom almost any position and which always presents the same pattern ofcontrols -in the same relative position to each other so that he quicklylearns Where everything is and has no trouble locating the control forany part of the system he wishes to use.

A yfurther purpose of lthis invention is to provide a cabinet for theaforesaid purpose which serves equally well while the patient is able tosit up in a chair.

In the accompanying drawing, lwhich is a part of this description FIGURE1 is a plan view of the cabinet and bracket.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the cabinet and bracket.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the cabinet extended on 1in-e 5-5 ofthe bracket in a typical position relative to the patient.

`FIGURE 4 is a plan View showing the cabinet folded flat against thewall.

FIGURE 5 is a cross section taken on FIGURE 2.

The for-m of the invention shown consists essentially of a rectangularcabinet 10 containing a telephone compartment 1K1, a compartment 12 forswitch elements, and a speaker compartment 13. This cabinet is supportedin a special manner described hereinafter on a swinging forked bracket14 pivotally connected to a wall box 15 which may be adapted to containauxiliary electrical equipment and which is preferably mounted withinthe wall 16 with only the yface plate y-17 and access panel 18 visible.

The [forked bracket 14 cons-ists of an upper arm 19 and a lower arm 2dconnected by a rigid column 21 and each arm having a rearward extension22 pivotally attached to ICC vbox is.

The outer ends of the arms 19l and Ztl of the forked bracket 14 arepivotally attached to a metal channelshaped receptacle 25 open on itsside and having flanges 26 top and bottom. Each flange 26 contains onits inner surface a groove 27 running parallel to the channel.

Brazed permanently within each groove 27 is a hardened steel rod 28,with slightly more than half o-f its diameter exposed. The exposed sideof the rods 28 engage slidably with similar -grooves 29 cut lengthwisein the top an-d bottom surfaces of the cabinet 10 and after the cabinet10 is thus engaged within the receptacle 25, stops 30 are secured withinthe ends of groove Z9 to keep the cabinet 10 4from being accidentallywithdrawn from the receptacle 25.

The front o-f the compartment '12 holds an assortment of knobs, pushbuttons and plugs collectively numbered 31 which may control a varietyof equipment, including a nurse call, speaker volume control, tuning forAM and FM radio contained in compartments 12 and 13, overhead andreading lights, doctors examination light and controls for TV setstanding elsewhere in the room. The speaker or speakers contained in thecompartment 13 may serve for intercom, radio and TV or piped in music.

A flexible cable 32 vcarries all the necessary circuits from the cabinet10 to the wall box 15 through the removable access plate `18 where itconnects with the various standard circuits running through thehospital.

As can be seen from the drawing, the forked bracket 14 carrying thecabinet 1t)` can be swung in an 180 are around the hinges 23 while thelcabinet 10 can be faced in any direction due 4to the pivoted connectionbetween the receptacle Z5 and the `forked bracket 14. In addition, thecabinet 10 can be pulled nearly its full length beyond the bracket 14 sothat it will extend all the way over a bed in front of the patient, orit can be set at an angle for easy access, as shown in FIGURE 3. Whennot in use, however, the cabinet 10 can be pushed back between the armsof bracket 14 and stowed compactly against the wall as shown in FIGURE4.

In any case there is never a wire or call button or any otherparaphernalia resting on the bed or getting lost under the covers orbehind the patients head as is often the case with present equipment.All the controls remain in the same pattern, regardless of being 4movedabout. It can be seen, therefore, that this cabinet offers manyadvantages over the present type of equipment and is more acceptable toboth patients and nurses.

rIhe invention is not limited to the exemplary construction herein shownand described, but may be made in various ways Within the scope of theappended claim.

What is claimed is: y

A hospital room utility unit comprising:

an elongate horizontal cabinet having a back and a front, said frontbeing open and having compartments therein,

a C-shaped receptacle receiving the back of said cabinet and extendingover and under the -upper and lower portions thereof,

said cabinet being longer than said C-shaped receptacle is lWide,

3 d means along the Itopv and bottom of said cabient slidwith the upperand lower ends of said C-shaped realbly mounting the same in saidreceptacle, ceptacle. a Ver-tical face plate, a forked bracketconsisting of an upper arm and a lower arm connected by a rigidReferences Cited in the le of this patent yCOlllIIlIl, UNITED STATESPATENTS means hingedly connecting said arms at said `column on v1,008,754 Thompson Nov. 14, 1911 i face plate for movement about avertlcal am, 1,380,222 Lichtenberg May 31 l 921,1 2,691,560 Beck Oot.12, 1954 means p1vota11y connectmg said upper and lower arms 2,962,281Hodgson NOV. 29 1960

